Various components of electrical systems may utilize power at multiple voltage levels. Power management circuitry may, for example, receive power from a battery, or a plurality of batteries at a common voltage, and provide regulated output power to various system components. A power management unit may, for example, utilize a power regulator integrated circuit to regulate the output power. Such a power regulator integrated circuit may, for example, output electrical power having desired characteristics directly. Such a power regulator integrated circuit may alternatively, for example, output electrical power signals that cause additional power supply circuitry coupled to the power regulator integrated circuit to output electrical power having desired characteristics.
Converting an input voltage to a regulated output voltage, particularly where there is a substantial disparity between the input voltage and the regulated output voltage, may result in energy-inefficient power supply operation. For example, various power supply circuit configurations (e.g., linear regulators and various switching regulators) have respective energy-efficiency characteristics, which may depend on the power regulation demands of a particular power regulation scenario.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.